In the always-dynamic IT landscape, trends and operational methods seem to change with the wind. But there are some distinct trends evolving among Australian businesses, aimed at bringing their operations up to date, while deriving the maximum value out of their infrastructure.

Managed services are gaining in importance

Managed services play an important role in this movement, representing a significant shift in focus that is actually driving revenue for the adoptive companies.

According to Michael Warrilow, vice president of Gartner Research, there are several core values driving these IT trends in Australia, including cost-optimization, cloud strategies, virtualization, and the replacement of legacy applications and infrastructure.

Data center trends embrace a hybrid approach

Cloud adoption has been slowly infiltrating Sydney businesses, but there has been some hesitation in complete integration, sometimes due to industry compliance regulation, and sometimes due to a reliance on legacy systems and applications that would require a significant investment in order to upgrade. By approaching their data center needs with a hybrid approach, businesses  in Sydney are able to become more agile while still meeting regulatory requirements. Going forward, developing a viable cloud strategy will be foremost, as even with the initial investment and pain points of the migration, it will represent greater value in the bigger picture.

A recent report published by Gartner suggests that DevOps, defined as a collaboration between operations and development teams, will become a major catalyst in defining this trend.

Cost optimization

With shrinking IT budgets, and a need to streamline processes while increasing value, cost optimization is necessary for Sydney businesses to remain relevant. The cost optimization methodology helps businesses to address potential risk while highlighting areas where cost-saving technologies can be implemented to bring value over the long term. Some cost optimization concepts include:

• Centralization and standardization of technologies
• Adoption of shared or managed IT services to reduce the cost of IT management and delivery
• Adopting a cloud strategy
• Optimization of software and IT management capabilities

All in all, cost optimization is about cutting costs while increasing value.

Managed services tend to deliver on all accounts, and can be implemented for:

• 24/7 server monitoring and management
• Next-generation security protocols
• Unified communications
• Backups and disaster recovery

Over and above cost-optimization, managed services can help by addressing problems before they become issues, minimizing or eliminating your downtime and saving you lots of money in the long run.

Virtualization: powering the remote workforce

As global business trends continue to shift towards a more flexible work environment, virtualization steps in as a solution to provide continuity in IT deliverables, even when the workforce is distributed over a large geographical area.

The ability to access a consistent network, desktop, and company file hierarchy is key to this trend, which provides a myriad of cost-savings and efficiency-driven benefits. Though there are many emerging technologies that are driving this trend, we can certainly look forward to a future in virtualization that will grow more agile with time.

Modernization of legacy infrastructure and applications

Since many companies still rely on legacy applications and infrastructure, it is becoming more evident that upgrades are necessary in order to meet future technology expectations, support scalable growth and shore up IT security issues – all of which add significant value to the bottom line.

Companies that continue to use legacy systems may be inadvertently making themselves more susceptible to cyber-attacks, not to mention tying up funds in IT management, as these systems often require additional maintenance to help them remain stable and secure.

Replacing your Citrix Server with RemoteFX 2016

If you are currently using a Citrix server for virtualization and mobile deployment, you are probably no stranger to the expensive and complex processes and never-ending maintenance that is involved in being a Citrix client. Though the prospect of changing over to a new system may seem daunting, the benefits are significant, both for the company and the end user.

For display graphics, Citrix has been surpassed by RemoteFX adaptive graphics, which is designed to support high quality streaming technologies and other rich media applications without latency-causing redirections or poor response due to low bandwidth. Even if you don’t think your company needs support for this type of technology right now, this is undeniably where we are headed. Getting ahead of the game is certainly in your best interests, both from an economical and technological perspective.

Approaching IT from an innovative standpoint

While flexibility and efficiency remain important, forward-thinking businesses in Sydney are finding it important to think about the future. Making changes now can support future growth and global expansion without the pain points associated with adapting to new technology trends.

Taken in this light, being able to deliver cost-effective, expedient business solutions that mitigate risk and are simple to manage should be easy to justify.

Greenlight ITC: helping you navigate the changing IT landscape

If you are a business in Sydney who is looking to improve your business performance and bottom line through technology, talk to the experts at Greenlight ITC today. We’d love to find out more about what you’re all about, and how we can help.